 Hello and welcome everyone to the E4M talk show. We have today with us Paul Segalov, who has the sales business of Yahoo across the APEC region and he's based in Australia. Welcome to the show Mr. Segalov. Hello Kanchin, it's wonderful to be here and thank you so much for your time. How are you doing? I think you have the first snowfall of the season today. Absolutely, you can tell I've been in this very cold room for a while so I've excused the jacket but I've been sedentary and it's definitely winter is upon us here in Sydney but it's sunny and crisp and cold. Okay, we have 30 to 35 degrees centigrade in Mumbai at present. Wow, a little bit different. Apart from you have a new government also in Australia that is installed recently. So my first question would be are you expecting any major changes in the media policy now since you have a new government and also I would like to know from you about your plans and strategy and maybe overview of your policy about here. Yeah, look about Yahoo. Firstly, let's go macro. I think there's a lot of great opportunity with the new government. It's too soon to say if there's going to be any kind of major changes coming through but I think it's an interesting time for everybody as we start to look at privacy and compliance and there's obviously quite a lot of scrutiny about some of the kind of larger media businesses that have taken a lot of revenue out of the traditional media businesses. So I think that that will probably continue but yes, I think it's a little too too soon to tell exactly how it's going to all play out at the moment. I would like you to elaborate on your own strategy for Yahoo business since you have taken it as APSE head. Yeah, look, I think it's a very exciting time to be here in our business. Yahoo or the new Yahoo as we call it is really in a transformational place with Apollo recently acquiring Yahoo. We really have the backing for what we need to take Yahoo to the next level. So Yahoo has a really impressive range of assets. We've got those premium iconic brands. We've got our industry leading ad tech and all of that is fueled by billions of data points to really help drive that better audience personalization for our consumers and move to meaningful engagement. So we're really focused on driving, I suppose, our value creation through these big iconic brands and our ad tech and we're seeing some pretty phenomenal growth across the board. And when we look at our DSP, our demand side platform, both globally and in India, we're seeing some pretty amazing growth. Let me quantify that. Across India, we're seeing about 130% growth on our DSP, which is amazing versus 115% on KGAR. And globally, we're seeing about 185% growth. So that's absolutely been a strong driver of growth. And our key growth drivers in India also include things like our native products, our DSP and our exchange as well. And we have a lot of global partners, but we also have a lot of local partners in India on the exchange side of the business as well. So we have a lot of direct premium publishers and their well renowned names like Times of India or Daily Hunt or Z5 or Microsoft. So advertisers can really reach that great engaged Indian online population at scale through our full stack as well. And we have reported strong diversified year over year revenue growth in 2021. And a lot of that has come from our high performing sort of consumer engagement experiences when you look at the mega trends, e-commerce is a really exciting experience. And really, when we think about focus areas, it's about continuing to double down on our strong partnerships across media ecosystem. So examples of that across the APAC region would be things like NIR, which is a great data partner. And that helps with kind of closed loop attribution. Again, we had a very recent press release and announcement, I think it was last week with Hyde Stack. So that's all about embracing Digital Outer Home as a growing and emerging trend and accessing inventory there. And then obviously, there's a whole piece on identity. So obviously, as we kind of move towards this cookie less and ID less world, how do we help those advertisers navigate towards that? So look, a lot's happening, but it's a very exciting time for Yahoo. Very impressive growth indeed. So now a natural question. I mean, Yahoo had shut down its news operations in India last year. So do you have any plans to restart the domain now? Look, I just want to acknowledge that Yahoo India was obviously impacted by the change to the regulatory laws. And that wasn't a decision that we came to lightly given our 20 year association with all of those users in India. We still have great products through our mail, which incidentally is the second largest email service in India. And also, we have Yahoo Search as well. And that continues to operate in India. And that also represents a sizeable audience. In addition, we've got our growing advertising business. So we're well placed to pursue strong opportunities in India. And key drivers as I touched on were our DSP, but also our native business as well. And really, the advertising business in India has been a strong contributor to our global growth story. And as I mentioned earlier, DSP is being kind of pivotal to that. But I think we're always looking for opportunities that are in line with our global strategy and our company goals. And that's really about how we benefit our business. And India is a strategically important market. So we're obviously going to continue to assess the situation. We're going to look at the landscape in India and really continue to engage with the Indian government and other stakeholders to understand future opportunities there. That means a new section is unlikely to be started very soon, right? At this moment, yeah, there's no announcements for me to talk about today. Okay. So what are your biggest challenges at present, considering the increasing size of Google, Amazon, beta? Oh, well, they are some pretty big competitors. But the way I like to look at it is really when you look at Yahoo's scale and our global reach, it's actually pretty similar to that of Facebook and Google, with our global products and services reaching almost 900 million people. However, we do operate very much like an independent player. So we're way more collaborative. We don't have a walled garden approach. And it's really about putting our consumers and our partners first. So Yahoo's seen considerable change. And that's kind of well expected, I suppose, as we're one of the founding companies of the internet. And we experienced a lot of learnings along the way. But as I said earlier, the new era of Yahoo is really focused on driving that value creation through our global brands and our ad tech solutions and our search business. And we have deep product experience. We've got tremendous industry knowledge that will drive new opportunities and also have some great investment across the globe. So really with Apollo coming on board and backing us, what we are is we're free from the public market. So we can build on our strong momentum and we have the runway to take Yahoo to the next level. So personally, I'm really excited about our future. For me, I feel like the stars have aligned. It's a moment in time where we really have the ability to unlock that full potential. We've also got our iconic brands. We've got our Omnichannel full stack. And outside of our own and operated content, we've got those kind of deep global partnerships that we have with the likes of Apple and Microsoft and Fox. But most importantly, I always talk about people. And people really are the lifeblood of our business. And we have an amazing team, certainly in India, hugely talented team. We have that great asset base and we have incredible business momentum. And really, it's those proof points I touched on earlier. We're already seeing tremendous momentum. And so it's, how do we continue to drive that? And the way that we kind of look at it is we're building this rich ecosystem. And that's about creating sustainable value. But we want to do that for our businesses that we partner with. We want to do it with our advertisers and just to make sure that it's a mutually beneficial space for us to play in. How do you plan to scale up Yahoo's creative studios and Metaverse domain? Are you planning to produce branded content as well? Look, I think the metaverse is really, really interesting. And it really speaks to that larger trend for me. It's about the demand for immersive personalised experiences. And we were quite an early mover on the AR and VR space. So when I think about AR ads, it's really built to make messages resonate. And it's more appealing to consumers. And we've found that brands that adopt those new mediums and technologies such as the metaverse will more effectively engage and convert some of their target audiences. When I think about shopping and I think about AR and AI, it's really about how do we create long lasting impressions? So how can you keep your brand top of mind for future shopping needs? And also, when we look at AR, Yahoo Studios has found that 46% of shoppers are really interested in this AR content. We're seeing that 80% of people want this kind of 360 degree view of the product. Obviously, a lot more people are doing Ecom, but it's really seeing and having that interactive experience before they buy. We're also seeing that over 60% are more likely to pay attention to products when they're presented in an innovative way. And as you know, there's a big fight for attention out there. But when I think about the metaverse, for me, the metaverse is all about experiences. So for me, that's about how do we bridge the gap between our physical and our virtual worlds? And brands are really interested to learn more as they explore in this space. Interestingly, millions of consumers are already playing in this space. And when you think about how people learn, when you read, you retain about 10% of information. When you hear, you retain about 20%. When you see, it's about 30%. But when you experience, a lot of people can retain up to 90%. So there was a really interesting case study around the metaverse that we did with a liquor product called Monkey Shoulder, which was a whiskey product. And that was over in the UK. And it was something that came to like we showcased it last week in our APAC Gray Summit. But interestingly, they had a great relationship through experiences and music. And so they used to set up these events and people would attend the events in real life and their product would be there. Then obviously, the pandemic came and there weren't really many in real life events. But what they recognized were there were millions of people in the metaverse. So with the help of Yahoo, they recreated an experience in Decentraland. They had volumetric capture of DJs that they selected. And they created this virtual event, which proved to be really, really popular. Again, people could still experience and interact with their products. But it was a great way for them to do that in an even innovative way. And I think that for me was kind of a great example of how when you have sort of the traditional marketing approach, but then you embrace the way that new consumers are engaging and how do you pull that through. And that was a great test and learn environment that worked really, really well and paid off for them. And there's loads of other opportunities as well and examples. So people that like to shop digitally are here. And again, the metaverse will be a really interesting playground for that. So again, another example was in New York where Yahoo was an innovation partner at New York Fashion Week. And we collaborated with a popular designer called Maisie Whelan on a holographic experience. And the holograms would appear as virtual models and they would come to life where people would interact and play with them. And then consumers could experience the collection through 3D assets that were available through QR codes and they could share it with friends using kind of where they are as well. And I think this is kind of really exciting and interesting for people. And then bringing it back to India and home, I think when what this means is the viewers from anywhere in the world can now be a part of an event or an experience. They just need a mobile phone to engage and explore. And as you well know, Indians absolutely love smartphones. So I think we're well placed to capitalize on the trend here. What is the mandate of your creative studio? I wouldn't necessarily there's kind of a clear mandate, but it's certainly around understanding, you know, clients challenges, recognizing those global consumer megatrends and leaning in and being a pioneer and an innovator. So again, it's not about owning a chunk of the metaverse. It's actually about the democratization of the metaverse and saying, well, who's doing really interesting things in this space? What can we do to work with them to collaborate to partner? And also, we have a great relationship and deep relationships with many brands. And so a lot of them come to us for knowledge and education. And we do a lot of tests and learning in the space in the space. So I think it's really exciting that, you know, we're kind of exploring and identifying a lot of new opportunities here. I would like to know from you what are the current trends in the ad technology market. And you already mentioned a couple of brands with which you are working. But I would also like to know the categories of brand which are largely advertising with Yahoo India. Okay, got lots there. So let me just unpack that for you. So when we think about brands in India, and you know, I'm fortunate enough to talk to many of them, the theme of Omnichannel seems to be standing out. So again, if you're not familiar with Omnichannel, it's how to connect with consumers across the digital ecosystem in a seamless way. And this really goes beyond display and video and native. And now basically, we like to include channels like connected TV and digital out of home. So the trend that I'm noticing is how can ad tech really drive greater performance and efficiency. And there's that old ad age of 50% of my advertising is working. But I don't know which half is. But now through the Yahoo DSP, you absolutely can. So when we look at connected TV, firstly, viewing in India is rising fast. With smart connected TVs, it's reported to exceed sort of 40 million by 2025, according to EY. And then you've got CTV inventory as a result of that is becoming available programmatically. And that's really attracting more linear spend. So as a result, we're seeing that CTV will be a big driver for India. And we're already seeing growing interest from advertisers changing gear a bit and looking at digital out of home. We're seeing that there's obviously a bit of a resurgence with Indian city for the now opening up. And we're seeing that the growing availability of digital out of home inventory through programmatic channels is really making it easier for advertisers to buy. And I think this is interesting because it actually is attracting new demand. It's not just taking existing demands. But really, most importantly, digital out of home has been proven to drive sales. So we did a research project. And basically that showed that digital out of home ads really nudged shoppers towards that impulsing purchases, which is guilty. Well, I'm sure we've all been guilty of that. But what we're seeing is that 56% have reported that they purchased an item that's been featured in a digital out of home display ad. And 65% of these purchases were unplanned. So really, that's been triggered after a customer has seen the ad. And then finally, when we look at as cookies go away, and brands are preparing for a cookie list in an idealist world, there are numerous solutions out there. And really, Yahoo's doing a lot of work in our connect ID and our next gen solution space. So I don't know if you want me to dive into that now, because there's a lot I can kind of expand on. Or I'm also happy to kind of talk about the kinds of advertisers that we're seeing in India. So maybe I'll take that one first. So when we look at the different categories, really, we work with a diverse group of clients. And that could be anything from FMCG brands to automotive to banking and finance. And what we're seeing is that some of our advertisers would, for example, would include people like Amazon, or Abbott, or Mahindra automobile, automotive, so Renault, Mercedes would be some good examples, or ICICI Direct would be like another great example of that. And then in addition, what we have is a strong network with our advertising agencies, our agency trading desks. So people like Kineso, OMG, Madison, Amnet, and Socrati, we have really deep relationships with those partners as well. And again, going on the journey with them in terms of trying to help them solve their clients' business objectives, which is super important. How do you plan to strengthen your core abilities like search, email, right? Yeah, look, those products are always on and they're permanently being invested in. So, interestingly, if you go to the iOS or the Play Store and you were to look at Yahoo Mail versus other providers, you'll find that we're kind of one of the highest ranked in the mail stores. So I think it's a continual sort of relentless focus on the consumer, really trying to understand what requirements they need based on changing consumer trends. Obviously, e-commerce is growing. So how do you have a really kind of organized inbox based around a lot of emails people get and breaking up kind of the social media emails to the work emails, to the e-commerce emails would be kind of an example of things that we're doing. But something for me that we've put a lot of time and energy and focus on is basically the cookiness world and how do we protect consumers with privacy. And really, philosophically at Yahoo, it's about putting trust and control back in the hands of our consumers and our advertisers. And as one of the founding companies of the internet, Yahoo has intimate knowledge of the digital landscape and we're uniquely positioned to really understand our partner's needs as we enter a cookiness world. And one of the reasons we console for this is because we've got millions of global direct consumers and we've got great relationships with them and we have a lot of first party data. But before I go into that, it's really important that we understand the problem so we can really understand what we're solving for. So what I want to do is kind of chunk that down. And when you think about the old world and I'm a really visual person, but if you visualize a pie chart, identity was really fueled by 50% cookies and 50% device IDs that powered your targeting solutions. Now, when you look in current reality, it's more like 35% cookies, 35% device IDs and approximately 30% of all our impressions have been delivered to unknown users because in browsers like Safari, you've got these cookie blockers. So fast forward to the new world. So how do you piece together identity without cookies or device IDs? So knowing all of these changes were coming, Yahoo has been focused on building a solution ahead of time. And the way that we kind of deliver on this is through a multi-pronged approach. And that is how do we get this full identity picture in a cookiness world? So what I want to do really quickly is kind of rebuild that pie chart. So if you think of an empty pie chart, 30% of the pie chart is going to be powered by what we call our connect ID solution. So Yahoo Connect ID solves when an ID is present. And our identity graph brings together a significant amount of opt-in data that is first party, second party, and third party data signals to build those comprehensive user profiles. Secondly, you have our next generation solutions. So that makes up about 45% of the pie chart. And Yahoo's next-gen solution solves for when an ID is not available. So what we do here is we leverage Yahoo's data, our machine learning, and we look at those real-time signals to infer audience characteristics. But we do that in a privacy-preserving manner. We then look at our data partnerships. So as I mentioned earlier, NEAR would be a great example of that. So where we've got data partnerships that complement first-party data. And really what we're trying to do is provide a more holistic view. So again, there's partners like Nielsen or Experian or Adobe or Bluekai that would help with piecing together that. Then you've got about 5%, which is about enhanced attribution. So that's really about improving measurement of click-through rates in a world where cookies are blocked. So that's how you have basically a dot pixel on a site or in a tag manager that can be tracked on iOS using Apple's new transparency framework. And then the last little 5% of your pie chart is really room for new innovation, new partnerships, new learnings. And so that's really how we've tried to reconstruct for a cookie-less world. And the great news is it's absolutely working, Kanshan. What we're seeing is that globally we've had over 11,000 publishers and domains like BuzzFeed and Shopify and Newsweek that have already adopted Connect ID. And we've got over 3,000 advertisers that have already started to activate first-party data. So that's huge. And it means that when the decision to extend the current operating dye and the current way of operating was here, it's actually just given us more time to build the muscle memory and get organized for the future. So we're in a really, really good position there. Very interesting. So my last question, digital marketing space is evolving very fast in India. How Indian market is different from the other APAC markets? Oh, well, look, I think there's similarities and there's differences. So I think, you know, interestingly for Yahoo, why we're really well positioned within that is that with our global structure, we're really solving clients' business objectives in a global holistic way. And what we're finding is that I talk about global scale, but local autonomy. And a lot of the smarts that I've talked about are evolved and created with global rollout in mind. And that has been incredibly beneficial for India because what they can do is leverage on all of this expertise and learnings from across the globe. But where we have great competitive advantages that we then go, well, what makes sense locally in India, given the market dynamics, the market maturity, again, talking to a lot of advertisers around what's important to them and understanding how through our suite of products, what's going to work best within the Indian market. So really, you know, the talented team on the ground in India are excellent, just synthesizing, you know, all of the all of the trends that are happening and then saying, well, actually, we feel that now they can roll out those things to really continue to deliver on those solutions. And I have to say, given the momentum that that team had, when I look back at full year 2021, the Indian business grew in excess of 40% year over year. So, you know, really, they've done a tremendous job at leveraging the capabilities that we have across our global business and making sure that resonates globally across the Indian market. Thanks for taking time out and talking with us, Mr. Sigalov. Thank you very much and happy Windows. Thank you, Kanshan. Thank you very much for your time. And it was great talking. Xavier. Thank you.